You’re not going to get much more of a taste of Summer than right here. Vibrant, craveable Middle Eastern ingredients, with more than 120 accessible recipes for making them shine. From the spectacular pistachio cheesecake to the tahini-enriched brownies, the recipes in Christine Sahadi Whelan’s Flavours of the Sun will inspire you to seek out distinctive Middle Eastern ingredients and make them essential components of your everyday pantry. Chronicle, R605 from local bookstores
100 per cent pure. 100 per cent local. Heritage Apple Cider Vinegar has nothing added to the apples to create the vinegar other than time. If you’ve spent too long out in the sun, dilute it with water and spray onto sunburn (great for insect bites and itching, too). Otherwise one or two teaspoons a day helps with blood sugar regulation, weight loss, and lowering of blood pressure and cholesterol. R110 from takealot.com.
Pale coral, delicate, refreshing, dry … the Jean Roi Cao Provincial Rosé 2020 is all fresh cut apple, yellow stone fruit, guava sweetness and is Summer in a glass. R240 from shop.rupertwines.com
Aqua straw placemats – pack of four for R120 from woolworths.co.za
Bunches of dill and oregano. Zesty citrus and sour pomegranates. Sweet dates and soothing tahini. Stuffed roast aubergine. Prawn saganaki. Fig and peach tart. In Ripe Fig – Recipes and Stories from the Eastern Mediterranean, food and travel writer Yasmin Khan travels through Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, and shares more than 80 mouth-watering dishes. It’s a book, she says, about food, of course. But also about love. And loss. About people she’s met, meals she’s shared, and about finding happiness in the smell of warm bread baking in the oven, or a scoop of pistachio ice cream on a hot summer’s day. Bloomsbury Publishing. R779 from exclusivebooks.co.za
Flesh, pith and skin are chopped into salads, juice is drizzled over meat, fish and veggies, the aromatic zest adds a complexity to a dish’s flavour. Even the leaves are used to wrap meat, fish and cheese for extra flavour, or finely chopped and made into a tea infusion. Gennaro’s Limoni by Gennaro Contaldo is a burst of sharp recipes. Pavilion, R415, from good bookstores
Let’s be honest. Is it even Summer if you’re not sipping cocktails? We’re making ours with X by Glenmorangie – a sweeter, richer single malt than the original – all swirling aromas of pear and vanilla, setting the stage for rich orange sherbet and fudge. It is delish neat, but our fave is the Glenmorangie X BBQ … a bold serve with a kick of fiery spice. Fill a highball glass with crushed ice, add 50ml X by Glenmorangie and an equal amount of ginger beer. Stir, then squeeze three lime wedges over the drink, using them to garish, too.
From the heart of the Caribbean *said in a Bob Marley voice* … delicious Creole recipes – think Ti’ Punch, and green banana and salt fish, and mango gratin. Sunshine Kitchen by Vanessa Bolosier is full of recipes to whip up on steamy days and sultry nights. Pavilon, R216 from loot.co.za •
Under Coconut Skies is a collection of dishes and stories inspired by Yasmin Newman’s time spent on Siargao and her travels to other distant regions, where bright, bold flavors are sourced from the blue, yellow, and green of the thousand islands – the sea, the sand and the trees of the Philippines. Smith Street, R740 from good bookstores
Aren’t these woven tumblers great? Hi ball options available, too. R29.99 each from Mr Price Home. • Nothing fishy going on here! This six-seater table runner has a coating that makes it splash proof … perfect for messy, celebratory, outdoor family meals. R650 from soilprints.co.za
Seasalter is fast becoming Groote Post’s most celebrated wine, with its West Coast saltiness and minerality from the nearby Atlantic. It’s a Summer mouthful of yellow fruit and a zesty lime acidity with hints of fynbos, sea-breeze and a touch of oak. A riper, softer, fruitier style of Sauvignon, Groote Post Seasalter Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is the perfect wine to serve with seafood. Debbie McLaughlin, cordon bleu chef patron at Hilda’s Kitchen, the much-loved restaurant at Groote Post, has used her culinary creativity to devise a special seafood dish to perfectly complement #Seasalter2021.
You’ll need: 500g peeled and cooked new potatoes; 250g smoked salmon trout; 180g mixed salad leaves; 12 thin green beans, blanched; 2 medium boiled eggs, peeled; 2 sliced chargrilled courgettes; 100ml Darling Olives Extra Virgin Olive Oil; 50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1T red wine vinegar; Funky Ouma Sea Salt; freshly ground black pepper
To make: Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, Funky Ouma Sea Salt and pepper. Mix well, pour over cooked new potatoes and adjust seasoning. Divide the potatoes, green beans, courgettes and eggs among four plates, top with mixed salad leaves and the smoked salmon trout. Drizzle with lemon mayonnaise dressing.
Lemon mayonnaise dressing
You’ll need: 1 egg yolk; zest of one lemon; 50ml freshly squeezed lemon juice; 100ml mild oil; Funky Ouma Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make: Place egg yolk, zest and juice of lemon, Funky Ouma Sea Salt, and pepper in a food processor. Slowly add the oil. Adjust seasoning.
You’ll find Seasalter Sauvignon Blanc 2021 online at groote-post-wines.myshopify.com for around R159.
Oysters, mussels, Salmon & fine wine
Winemaker Mike Dawson enjoys his Journey’s End Weather Station Sauvignon Blanc 2020 with his version of white wine mussel soup. “It’s a fresh style of wine, with beautiful natural acidity and tropical fruit flavours, which makes it a perfect pairing with seafood, of which mussels is my favourite. The freshness of the wine cuts through the creaminess of the soup. This is a match made in heaven.”
You’ll need: 3kg fresh mussels; 2 onions, 1 leek and 2 celery sticks (from his garden, he tells us, you may have to pop into the greengrocer); 1 cup each of water, chicken broth and Journeys End Weather Station Sauvignon Blanc (be a little more generous if you are feeling adventurous). 1 cup of clam juice (you can also buy canned clams and drain out the juice, or if you can’t find canned clams, then substitute with another cup of chicken broth); a quarter cup of fresh parsley and 3 mashed garlic cloves (also from his garden); 1 cup cream; salt and pepper, of course
To make: Add onions, leeks, celery, parsley, garlic, water, wine, chicken broth, clam juice, salt and pepper into a potjie pot over hot coals, and bring this to boil. Reduce the heat, add the mussels, cover, and simmer for five mins or until mussels have opened. Add the cream right at the end and you’re good to go. This recipe serves four, says Mike, adding “but my girlfriend Tynika and I are more than capable of finishing two servings each”.
Journey’s End Weather Station Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is around R100 from shop.journeysend.co.za
Fresh oysters, with a glass of Sense of Place Anna Christina MCC. Summer heaven. This elegant, Chardonnay-driven Méthode Cap Classique has aromas of fresh Granny Smith apples and citrus blossoms with a nutty yeastiness, and goes perfectly with these fresh oysters with apple, cucumber and basil, a fresh recipe from Alet Kilchenmann of The Bubbly Club.
You’ll need … any amount of fresh oysters, shucked (the more the merrier we say); a Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced into small cubes; and cucumber ribbons (discard the outer skin). For the vinaigrette: ½ cup good quality olive oil; 50ml Sense of Place Anna Christina MCC; 25ml fresh lemon juice; 5ml honey; 5 large fresh basil leaves; a good shake of smoked chili flakes; salt & pepper to taste.
To make: Blend the vinaigrette ingredients with a hand blender until combined.
Top oysters generously with apple cubes, cucumber ribbons, and lashings of the vinaigrette and enjoy!
You’ll find Anna Christina MCC for R205 a bottle on stellenbosch-hills.co.za
Wilding printed tea towel (use as an oversize napkin) and set of four side plates, in ink on white. Great gifts (if you can bring yourself to give them away) R49.99 and R169.99 from Mr Price Home.
Add a bistro high ball tumbler (R55 from Woolies) and there’ll be no Summer blues at your al fresco lunch table.
Recipe developer and food blogger (and so much more) Ilse van der Merwe is one of our most respected food personalities – and her blog thefoodfox.com is massively successful. Simply Seasonal is her book … and it’s simply sensational. It kicks off with olive and mozzarella bread with capers and thyme for Autumn, and ends with mango and passionfruit popsicles for Summer. In between … recipe after recipe of dishes featuring season produce. Photographs to inspire, recipes tempting (and easy) enough to encourage even reluctant cooks. Penguin Books, R409, available from exclusivebooks.co.za
From leading premium mixer brand … Fever-Tree Easy Mixing: More than 150 Quick and Delicious Mixed Drinks and Cocktails, is all clever variations on the classic gin & tonic, hot weather spritzes, and party time mules and mojitos. There are sensational no-and-low alcohol cocktails, and when you’re expecting the party to overflow with guests, some fabulous pitchers (we’ve making the Watermelon and Ginger Summer Cooler at our first festive-season party … can. not. wait). Octopus, R380.
Hot days call for lighter, crisper rosé-style drinks. Like Loxtonia Blush Apple Cider … an all-natural cider with an alluring rosy hue that’s 100 per cent freshly pressed and naturally fermented juicy pink apples. Delicate floral notes with vibrant bursts of apple and a refreshing dry finish, there are only 58 calories in a bottle, with an alcohol content of 4,5 per cent. Great for picnics, pool parties and chilling with friends, it’s gluten-free, vegan-friendly and free of preservatives and artificial additives, making this fashion-forward cider most definitely on trend. R99 for a 4-pack from loxtonia.co.za
